Screwdriver's reused soil in a bucket thread

[screwdriver]

Hello DL, thanks for your comment and stopping by.

I stirred my buckets today. Most everything is unrecognizable except for about 20 cm of the main stem. I'm too lazy to cut it up. Just waiting for it to soften more so I don't ruin my snips. Added a little bit more water.




This is what I'm working with at the moment.

How many times can you use a planter without exchanging the soil? I just happen to have a planter that started out with two plants. They were in flower mode when I found out that one was a male(green arrow). So I culled it immediately and smoked a bowl. Then a companion tomato plant made it through my waterings(red arrow). The blue arrow was my latest harvest. I left the stem there so I could tie the tomato plant to it. I grew the tomato plant with a bend, mainly for height, but the new skunk I'm transplanting in there will fit perfectly in the bend. I'll keep track of this elsewhere.

 

[KAMSAI]

if i was to consider using dirt again, i would bake it for 375 in the oven to kill any germs left from a prior grow,

 

[screwdriver]

KAMSAI, everybody likes to do things a little differently.
I don't think the wife would like me to do that in the oven and I'm not sure if I would like that either. Any "germs" left over I would like to keep them in the soil because I don't think there is anything "bad" in the soil after a good grow. I don't do the "freezer" thing either.

I could also be wrong and reusing soil is the worst thing to do. I'm still waiting to find out.

If anybody is actually using the oven to sterilize their soil I would really like to see some pics of the procedure you are using, the aromas around the house during cooking, the way you check to make sure the germs are dead, size of pan, how you check the temp, how long needed at that temperature, etc,etc.

 

[DLtoker]

The only way I have seen people "sterilizing" (even though it technically isn't) their soil is by "cooking" the soil in a sealed garbage bag by leaving it in direct sunlight... If anything, this just disturbs all of your hard work, if your hard work has been done right. Keep truckin' man!

 

[screwdriver]

Hello DL, I've heard a story like that before through the grapevine. I liken it to talking to my BIL. He can tell a story and misinterpret all sorts of details to end up with a story that confuses me. Would not get hot enough to sterilize but maybe warm enough for composting and increasing the microbe colonies. Anyway.

Stirred my buckets the other day and moved some dirt around.

From #2 I put a couple scoops into #1 bucket which is ready for use or storage. I also moved soil from #3 to #2.
I finally got around to cutting up the stem from bucket #3. It was soft enough that the scissors handled it smoothly. I then added all the scrap from the male skunk and the trim from my tomato plant container into bucket #3. Stir up, added some water with fish fert and mix until moistened.



Not much happening with buckets. I'm thinking about reusing the containers alone without removing old soil or roots. Just playing with one of my containers that way to see if I notice anything obvious.

 

[KGB30]

looking good!!

 

[screwdriver]

Thanks for stopping by KGB30, Kludge.

Just finished with an alfalfa tea. I poured the liquid contents onto the plants and the remainder from the bottom of the jug I made it in went into my bucket #3. I also used my finger to scrape the inside of the jug a couple of times where a huge mound of something was growing on the side. Mixed the bucket and threw it back into the cabinet.



The smell as the tea was brewing was as if I was on a farm. The kind of smell that says its time to clean the barn. I can close off the cold air return and contain the smell to my room. The odor during brewing is noticed and tolerated by me, but if there was an odor with the buckets they would be gone. After putting it into the bucket and mixing in the odor is gone. I've noticed that I can smell the tea that I pour into the planters for days.
I also poured my tea on some "upstairs" plants of mine. I could smell the tea a day after I watered. With a fresh nose and walking in the house from a long days work there was a faint farm odor. The next day, nothing, unless you really got your nose to the soil.
It just seems that the odor carries longer in the liquid portion of the tea versus the more solid portion.

 

[KGB30]

No miss spelling but looks great. lol

 

[screwdriver]

Spell check :banana:

 

[screwdriver]

Well, still reusing the same soil even though it magically increases in volume. Waiting for all the horrors of reusing to surface. Don't see any "salt" buildup, don't bake the soil to kill anything. I have outgrown the three buckets and in some bigger tubs but everything else is still the same. Don't know if it is actully all organic but it is all my way.

 

[screwdriver]

Found these males hanging around and didn't want them to go to waste.
Just cut them up into tiny pieces and put back into soil. I also added some fish fert water to moisten the soil up and a wad of alfalfa that had been sitting in a cup of water for about a week. Breakup the root mess then stirred the whole tub.

 

[Mutt]

howdy screwdriver...long time bro. hope all is well on your end.
Very informative thread here been in my favorites since you created it. :aok:

 

[screwdriver]

Hello Mutt, all is getting better just every other week now. Things moving a little slower these days. Looking forward ignoring the past.

 

[screwdriver]

Not much going on in the tub that I can see. Added a little water to moisten and stirred every couple of days. Don't recognized anything except these sticks. Most of them are finally soft enough to finish cutting up into smaller pieces. One of them was petrified I think but managed to cut up into a small enough piece. Going to transfer some into the yellow tub soon just to make room in the red tub. I just don't want to fill the tubs with too much because it makes it hard to stir. I want to be able to turn the whole mass over so it doesn't sit on the bottom of the tub for very long.


This is just my getting ready bucket. Its where I'll add some blood, bone, epsoma salt. Ummmmm, you said salt. Oh no! Anyway, I'll add other nutrients also, just whatever I want. Just have to let it sit for a couple of weeks before I use it. I also stir this every couple of days and add water to moisten.

 

[Mutt]

I like Epsoma's line of ferts and such. Bio-tone plus, plant tone and holly tone all in my grow

 

[screwdriver]

I think they are great but are hard to come by. It seems the box store only carries one in stock and they are always out.
I would think that a company marketing their product would use packaging that was a little more eco-friendly. Why not use a package that when the product was gone you could tear up the bag and use it as fertilizer. That's my idea along with edible underwear. When your finished...wait, I'm still thinking that one through.

 

[Stufart]

Dont use news paper as the ink used isn't ink at all. Its comprised mainly from 80-88% petroleum oil the rest is carbon pigment. Putting it in your compost pile can be harmful and counter productive really. I guess small amounts may be ok but just keep that in mind.

 

[Wetdog]

Dont use news paper as the ink used isn't ink at all. Its comprised mainly from 80-88% petroleum oil the rest is carbon pigment. Putting it in your compost pile can be harmful and counter productive really. I guess small amounts may be ok but just keep that in mind.

That's incorrect for the most part.

The overwhelming majority of printing inks, especially newspaper inks are soy based, not petroleum based and have been for a number of years.

When I first got into printing in the mid 80's soy based inks were limited. By the early 90's, about all were soy based. Much safer for the printers and consumers.

Wet

 

[ozzydiodude]

Stoners where here

Last post til today was 3/7/2010

 

[Stufart]

Fair call. However in Australia, all the inks used are latex based.